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Haddad’s statement reignited the discussion about the departure of Brazilian companies to Paraguay and exposed data pointing to an older movement, distributed by different governments, influenced by lower tax burdens, export incentives, and changes in the Paraguayan maquila regime.
Fernando Haddad (PT), pre-candidate for the government of São Paulo, attributed the advance of Brazilian companies moving to Paraguay to the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and Tarcísio de Freitas’s (Republicans) tenure at the Ministry of Infrastructure.
The statement was made on Saturday (June 6, 2026), during participation in the 3 Irmãos podcast, broadcast on YouTube, amid the discussion about competitiveness, taxes, and the relocation of productive activities to the neighboring country.
Addressing the issue, Haddad said that the movement of Brazilian companies leaving occurred during the previous administration and linked the phenomenon to the period when Bolsonaro was President of the Republic.
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“The companies moved to Paraguay during the Bolsonaro government. The Bolsonaro government saw the largest exodus of companies to Paraguay along with the Tarcísio government,” said the PT member, according to a report published by Poder360.
However, data compiled by Poder360 based on information from the Paraguayan government and the Chamber of Brazilian Entrepreneurs in Paraguay indicate that the migration is not concentrated in a single administration.
The largest accumulation by period appears during the Lula 2 and Dilma Rousseff governments, both from the PT, when 74 Brazilian enterprises began operating in the neighboring country.
Migration of Brazilian companies to Paraguay began before Bolsonaro
The historical series shows that the departure of Brazilian companies to Paraguay was already occurring before the Bolsonaro government and gained strength at different times over the last decade.
During Michel Temer’s administration, between 2017 and 2018, another 46 companies began operating in the neighboring country, maintaining a high pace of adherence to the Paraguayan maquila regime.
In the first two years of the Bolsonaro government, in 2019 and 2020, the survey also recorded 46 Brazilian companies moving to Paraguay, a number similar to that observed in the previous two-year period.
After that, between 2021 and 2022, the total fell to 26 companies, during a period that coincided with the stronger effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and industrial activity.
With the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) to the Planalto in 2023, and Haddad in the Ministry of Finance, the curve has risen again in the most recent segment.
In the biennium 2023-2024, 34 Brazilian companies were registered in Paraguay, according to the data cited by the report and attributed to Paraguayan bases and the Brazilian business entity in the country.
As the Paraguayan government releases new companies in two-year blocks, there is still no consolidated official number for 2025.
Until the publication of the report, 6 publicly known cases had been counted, but the broader official release is only expected to occur in 2027.
Maquila regime helps explain Paraguayan attraction
Paraguay has increased its ability to attract foreign companies through the maquila regime, created to allow production aimed at export with tax and operational incentives.
In the Brazilian case, 232 companies have started producing in the neighboring country since 2007, according to a survey published on May 23, 2026.
These Brazilian companies account for about 70% of the more than 320 foreign companies that chose the Paraguayan model to set up production operations or expand activities aimed at the external market.
Among the main attractions is the cost difference: according to Poder360, factories under this regime have total taxes and labor charges of 12% on average, compared to 80% in Brazil.
The supervision of maquila falls to the National Council of Export Maquiladora Industry, an agency linked to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Paraguay.
This council formulates guidelines, evaluates maquila program requests, and monitors compliance with the rules applicable to companies established in the country under this framework.
In addition to the existing structure, Paraguay updated the legal framework of the sector to increase the attractiveness of the regime and reorganize the rules applied to foreign companies.
The Law No. 7,547/2025 replaced the previous legislation from 1997, while the Decree No. 5,714/2026 regulated the new model and began to include services in the maquila regime.
Haddad defends national scale economic strategy
During the interview, Haddad argued that Brazil should not try to compete with smaller countries solely by reducing taxes.
In the evaluation of the PT member, the Brazilian strategy needs to consider the size of the population and the national economy, instead of repeating low-tax models adopted by countries with smaller scales.
“Every small country, and I am not belittling Paraguay by saying this, is a country of 6, 7 million inhabitants. Every small country can attract companies. Brazil, with 215 million inhabitants, cannot be a tax haven,” declared Haddad on the podcast.
While developing the argument, the former minister mentioned Uruguay, Switzerland, and Caribbean countries as examples of economies that can use tax incentives more intensively due to their smaller population structure.
For him, Brazil needs to sustain a development plan compatible with its dimensions, without turning the tax dispute into the central axis of economic policy.
“It’s not worth it, there are 215 million inhabitants to feed. It’s no use attracting people who don’t want to pay taxes here. Brazil must have a development plan on the scale of Brazil, it’s no use doing it on the scale of Paraguay,” he stated.
Data on Brazilian companies require period segmentation
The discussion gained momentum because the number of 232 Brazilian companies in Paraguay began circulating on social media associated with the period when Haddad was at the Ministry of Finance.
A fact-check by AFP published on May 29, 2026, pointed out that this association is misleading, as the data covers the period from 2007 to March 2026.
According to the same survey, Haddad led the Ministry of Finance from January 2023 to March 2026, while the peak of the movement, in the segment analyzed by AFP, occurred between 2017 and 2020.
This temporal distribution shows that the migration of Brazilian companies to Paraguay spans governments of different parties and cannot be entirely attributed to a single administration.
The available framework includes tax factors, labor costs, export incentives, and regulatory changes in Paraguay, which help explain why Brazilian companies began to consider the neighboring country as a productive alternative.
It is also evident that the comparison between governments depends on the segment adopted, as the largest accumulated sum cited by Poder360 appears in the Lula 2 and Dilma years, while another time grouping highlights the progress between 2017 and 2020.
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